Speaking at a press conference of the Medical Committee for Human Rights in March 1966, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. described inequities in healthcare as “this most notorious expression of segregation…because it often results in physical death.” While legally sanctioned racial segregation in healthcare was outlawed by the 1964 Civil Rights Act, racial disparities in healthcare remain commonplace to this very day.
Here in New York City, healthcare disparities are staggering. The average life expectancy in some neighborhoods on the Upper East Side, for example, is 15+ years greater than the average life expectancy in many areas of Harlem, the Bronx, and Central/East Brooklyn, according to U.S. Census Data.
These aren’t just statistics—these are the lives of countless individuals, predominantly people of color—dying early because of healthcare inequity.
Why? Part of the reason is that the healthcare services that Black and brown communities rely on are being critically underfunded by the State. The hospitals that serve our communities—often public and safety-net hospitals—are especially reliant on Medicaid funding, which pays 30% less than the actual cost of care. These hospitals cannot offer the same level of services as in more affluent communities where healthcare institutions benefit from the higher payment rates provided by private health insurers. And as we’re seeing today, hospitals around the state are being forced to cut back services or even close entirely—Mount Sinai Beth Israel in Manhattan and Eastern Niagara Hospital upstate are but two examples.
New York can fix this crisis, keep hospital doors open, and begin to eliminate healthcare disparities by closing the Medicaid funding gap in the state budget. This is the message that I and thousands of 1199SEIU healthcare workers are bringing to the halls of Albany. It’s why I’ve been on Hot 97 and WBLS, and will continue to speak out on the airwaves. It’s why our union has launched, in partnership with the Greater New York Hospital Association, a major statewide campaign to educate the public about what is at stake and to demand that Governor Hochul do the right thing.
Alarmingly, the governor’s proposed budget pours accelerant on the fires of New York’s healthcare crisis. Gov. Hochul is proposing healthcare cuts amounting to $1 billion, in addition to other egregious plans that include slashing the pay of thousands of low-paid homecare workers by $3 an hour and eliminating sick leave protections for workers affected by COVID-19. Where will these cuts hurt most? In communities of color.
I grew up under segregation. I carry physical scars of unequal treatment in health. To see segregation and hierarchies in healthcare perpetuated, 60 years after the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act, which ostensibly outlawed Jim Crow, is unconscionable to me.
As we honor Black History Month, we must not sit idle while decisions are made in Albany that have life-and-death consequences for our families. We must demand, as a core principle, that New York State’s budget ensures Medicaid Equity. A person who relies on Medicaid for their care is no less of a person than anyone else. Medicaid care for New Yorkers must be fully funded, not shortchanged.
George Gresham is president of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, the largest union of healthcare workers in the nation.